"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Sunday, August 05, 2012

King Of Animal Cruelty

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I don't have a dog, which makes me sad. I grew up with dogs, first Princess and then Autumn Haze. Now I travel too much to have one. But I love dogs and every morning I go for a hike and bring a pocketful of the best quality pure dried duck breast strips to give to Gabby, Murphy, Osa, Licorice, Louie and a few who's names I don't know but who live on my route. I usually stop and exchange some good vibes with them. My pals!

There are a lot of reasons to detest Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and there always have been. He's behind almost every rotten thing the GOP has been up to, especially the most mean-spirited stuff, like demanding women who are raped bear the child of the rapist and insisting that if someone can't read English they shouldn't be entitled to vote. Needless to say he's one of the most virulently antigay Members of Congress, absolutely fanatical about it. Most of his colleagues-- not including Michele Bachmann-- consider him a crackpot and an embarrassment. He's so horrible in fact, that we're actually asking people to contribute to Christie Vilsack, his opponent and a moderate Democrat and member of the New Dems-- the only one of that breed we're actually trying to help get elected. As I mentioned yesterday, King is the leader of the pro-cruelty to animals caucus. His record is astoundingly anti-animal, more so than anyone else in Congress. And his latest stunt is to try to legalize dog fighting.

Tuesday is primary day in Washington state and I got an e-mail from the Humane Society urging me to support Darcy Burner. Darcy is a dear friend and someone who has been endorsed by Blue America for many reasons. The Humane Society just gave us another one. Executive Director Sara Amundson: "We are grateful for Darcy’s support of humane issues and for her work to create a more humane society." Steve King was graded a ZERO by the Humane Society. Here's the Washington's House delegation's scores. Opposing cruelty to animals is bipartisan. As you can see, Republican Dave Reichert has a 100% rating, just like 3 of the Democrats, Norman Dicks, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott. The only Democrat with a really bad and failing rating is New Dem corporate hack Rick Larsen (38%), who is campaigning for Darcy's New Dem opponent, shady multimillionaire Suzan DelBene, who was pointedly not endorsed by the Humane Society.

Here are the 2011 ratings by the Humane Society for the incumbents that the Blue America challengers are running against. If you want to help protect dogs and cats from cruelty, you might want to replace these heartless lugs with candidates who feel the same way you do about it. I asked Rob Zerban, the guy taking on Paul Ryan, what he thinks about Ryan's atrocious record on animalsafety. "My wife and I joke that we treat our two dogs like they're our children. They mean the world to us, and for Congressman Ryan to have such an abysmal record in protecting animals like them is simply unconscionable. Ryan has only a 13% score when it comes to stopping animal cruelty. This F rating is disturbing, and I believe treating animals with compassion is one of many issues that reflects upon someone's character. We can see Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney display selfish tendencies and his lack of compassion explains his cuts to the budget when it comes to the seniors, students, women, and middle class families in his district." These are Rob's 2 pooches, Barley and Hops: